London Art News previews art exhibitions in London and reports on anything of special interest in the visual arts worldwide, from ice sculpture to body painting.

Tuesday, 27 August 2013

Little Mermaid 100

In case it had escaped your notice, Copenhagen's iconic bronze statue The Little Mermaid (1913) turned 100 last Friday. Local officials and the Danish public were out in force to celebrate her centenary. One hundred young women jumped into the water from the boat shown in the photo and formed the number 100. CLICK for a BBC video. Carl Jacobsen - son of the founder of brewery Carlsberg - commissioned sculptor Edward Eriksen to create the statue in 1909. Ballerina Ellen Price agreed to model for the head, but refused to pose in the nude. So Eriksen's wife Eline posed for the body. How much of Ellen Price is left is anyone's guess, because the statue has been decapitated a number of times (CLICK).